60 



Energy Commission (UNAEC). At the same time, the deliberations 

 of Acheson's group were getting underway as an additional group of 

 policymakers, largely from the scientific community, provided the 

 technical advice necessary to an understanding of the problem and 

 to formulating an appropriate policy. This group, known as the Board 

 of Consultants, was led by David Lilienthal, Chairman of the Tennes- 

 see Valley Authority. 



The findings of these two groups, known as the Acheson-Lilienthal 

 report, 4 were released in March 1946. In the same month, Bernard 

 M. Baruch was appointed by President Truman to speak for the 

 United States in the UNAEC. Combining his own views on interna- 

 tional control of atomic energy with the proposals set down in the 

 Acheson-Lilienthal report, Baruch presented the U.S. proposal, which 

 became known as the Baruch plan, at the opening session of the 

 UNAEC on June 14, 1946. 



Impasse of Negotiations in the United Nations 



Opening proposals of the Soviet Union were presented to the 

 UNAEC on June 19. The extensive differences between the policies 

 of the two countries were to undergo few modifications during the 

 negotiations to follow. Once the initial proposals of the major powers 

 had been made, procedural arrangements of the UNAEC were devised 

 and implemented. An important group was the Scientific and Tech- 

 nical Committee, which examined the technical feasibility of con- 

 trol. The report of this group was issued to a major organ of the 

 UNAEC, called Committee Two, in October 1946. Following discus- 

 sions by this latter body, a report of the whole UNAEC was made 

 to the United Nations Security Council on December 31, 1947. 



The Security Council did not resolve the questions raised by the first 

 report of the UNAEC on international control of atomic energy, and 

 referred the problem back to the UNAEC in March 1947. The second 

 session of that body had been underway since January 1 and continued 

 until September 1947, when a second report was issued to the Security 

 Council. Again, decisive action was not forthcoming from the Security 

 Council, and further deliberations were carried on by the UNAEC, 

 which issued its third and final report on May 7, 1948. This document 

 recorded the admission by the negotiators that their deliberations had 

 reached a stalemate. The General Assembly pressed for continuation 

 of the discussions, but they were finally suspended in November 1949. 

 In the meantime, an important event substantially altered the char- 

 acter and outlook of the negotiations and added to the existing diffi- 

 culties of an extremely complex international problem. This event was 

 the explosion by the Soviet Union on September v 2.">. L949, of its own 

 nuclear device. 

 The Historical Context of the Negotiations; the Turbulent Postwar 



Years 



The events reviewed in this study occurred during a turbulent I 



years during which the great powers and the lesser powers moved 



to establish post war mechanisms and configural ions of power, security. 



and influence. The splitting of Europe occurred ns Bulgaria (Septem- 



u IS Department of State t Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy, 

 Publication No. 2498 (Washington, D.C U.S. Government Printing Office, 1040), re- 

 ferred to as the "Acheson Lilienthal Report." 



